Medicament reservoirs such as ampoules, cartridges, or vials are generally known. Such reservoirs are especially used for medicaments that may be self administered by a patient. For example, with respect to insulin, a patient suffering from diabetes may require a certain amount of insulin to either be injected via a pen type injection syringe or infused via a pump. With respect to certain known reusable pen type drug delivery devices, a patient loads a cartridge containing the insulin into a proximal end of a cartridge holder. After the cartridge has been correctly loaded, the user may then be called upon to select a dose of medicament. Multiple doses may be dosed from the cartridge. Where the drug delivery device comprises a reusable device, once the cartridge is empty, the cartridge holder is disconnected from the drug delivery device and the empty cartridge is removed and replaced with a new cartridge. Most suppliers of such cartridges recommend that the user dispose of the empty cartridges properly. Where the drug delivery device comprises a disposable device, once the cartridge is empty, the user is recommended to dispose of the entire device.
Such known self administration systems requiring the removal and reloading of empty cartridges have certain limitations. For example, in certain generally known systems, a user simply loads a new cartridge into the delivery system without the drug delivery device or without the cartridge having a mechanism of preventing cross use of an incorrect cartridge. That is, the drug delivery device does not have a mechanism for determining if the medicament contained in the cartridge is indeed the correct type of medicament to be administered by the patient. Alternatively, certain known drug delivery devices do not present a mechanism for determining if the correct type of medicament within the cartridge should be used with that particular drug delivery system. This potential problem could be exacerbated given that certain elderly patients, such as those suffering from diabetes, may have limited manual dexterity. Identifying an incorrect medicament is quite important, since the administration of a potentially incorrect dose of a medicament such as a short acting insulin in lieu of a long acting insulin could result in injury or even death.
Some drug delivery devices or systems may use a color coding scheme to assist a user or care giver in selecting the correct cartridge to be used with a drug delivery device. However, such color coding schemes pose challenges to certain users, especially those users suffering from poor eyesight or color blindness: a situation that can be quite prevalent in patients suffering from diabetes.
Another concern that may arise with such disposable cartridges is that these cartridges are manufactured in essentially standard sizes and manufactured to comply with certain recognized local and international standards. Consequently, such cartridges are typically supplied in standard sized cartridges (e.g., 3 ml cartridges). Therefore, there may be a variety of cartridges supplied by a number of different suppliers and containing a different medicament but they may fit a single drug delivery device. As just one example, a first cartridge containing a first medicament from a first supplier may fit a medical delivery device provided by a second supplier. As such, a user might be able to load and then dispense an incorrect medicament (such as a rapid or basal type of insulin) into a drug delivery device without being aware that the medical delivery device was perhaps neither designed nor intended to be used with such a cartridge.
WO2008009646 shows a medical delivery system having a container and a dosing assembly, wherein one of the container and the dosing assembly comprises a rotatable element adapted to engage the other one of the container and the dosing assembly. The rotatable element is temporarily retained rotationally relative to the dosing assembly by means of a knob which engages corresponding knobs in the dosing assembly, whereby the rotatable element may be retained in a predetermined number of positions.
WO2008062025 shows a medical delivery system comprising a container which is adapted to be fastened to a dosing assembly. One of the container and the dosing assembly comprises a rotatable element adapted to cooperate with the other one of the container and the dosing assembly, so as to lock/fasten the container to the dosing assembly.
As such, there is a growing desire from users, health care providers, care givers, regulatory entities, and medical device suppliers to reduce the potential risk of a user loading an incorrect drug type into a drug delivery device. There is also, therefore, a desire to reduce the risk of dispensing an incorrect medicament (or the wrong concentration of the medicament) from such a drug delivery device.
There is, therefore, a general need to physically dedicate or mechanically code a cartridge to its drug type and design an injection device that accepts or works with the dedication or coded features provided on or with the cartridge so as to prevent unwanted cartridge cross use. Similarly, there is also a general need for a dedicated cartridge that allows the medical delivery device to be used with an authorized cartridge containing a specific medicament while also preventing undesired cartridge cross use.
There is also a general need to provide a dedicated cartridge that is difficult to tamper with so that the cartridge may not be compromised in that the cartridge can be used with an unauthorized drug or drug delivery device. Because such cartridges may be difficult to tamper with, they may also reduce the risk of counterfeiting: i.e., making it more difficult for counterfeiters to provide unregulated counterfeit medicament carrying products.
It is an object of the invention to provide a new cartridge assembly which can be used in a drug delivery device, and a new drug delivery device comprising the new cartridge assembly.
This object is achieved by the cartridge assembly according to claim 1 and the drug delivery device according to claim 17, respectively. Embodiments derive from the dependent claims.
An embodiment of the cartridge assembly comprises a cartridge holder and a cartridge. The cartridge holder is provided with a first fastening feature, and the cartridge is provided with a second fastening feature. The first fastening feature and the second fastening feature are provided as a fastener to connect the cartridge assembly to a drug delivery device. The fastener is thus shared between the cartridge holder and the cartridge or between the cartridge holder and the connector.